Eco Minute 13:30

BULLETIN 23 April 1:30 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Eco Minute:

# The South African Weather Service has warned of cut-off low forecast to bring heavy rain, thunderstorms, and cold weather across much of South Africa from today to Saturday. Spokesperson Tokelo Chiloane says heavy rainfall is expected in the eastern regions, while the Free State and North West may face flooding and hail. She says snow is expected in the Drakensberg Mountains, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal:

# US biologist Camille Parmesan has won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change for revealing how climate change is displacing species. Her pioneering research has been able to establish that rising temperatures have left a globally coherent fingerprint on biodiversity. The Climate Change and Environmental Sciences committee says Parmesan’s work has major ramifications for global public health, due to the polewards expansion of tropical diseases like malaria or dengue that are transmitted by mosquitoes.

# And finally: By 2090, climate change could be linked to one in ten cases of intimate partner violence. This is according to a new report by the United Nations Spotlight Initiative. The study found that every one-degree Celsius rise in global temperature is associated with a 4.7-percent increase in intimate partner violence. In sub-Saharan Africa, intimate partner violence could triple to 140-million by 2060 if temperatures rise by four degrees Celsius. The UN says as climate shocks become more frequent, the risk of violence is projected to rise dramatically.

Stay tuned for more news………….